People became the fastest billionaires in the shortest amount of time

Jeff Bezos – 6 years

Jeff Bezos founded e-commerce giant Amazon in 1994 and launched the website the following year. Starting out selling books, the online shopping site issued its IPO in 1997 and by 1998, majority owner Bezos had racked up a net worth of $1.5 billion (£1.2bn), landing him on Forbes World Billionaires List.